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2nd year of Mayor’s Walks kicks off in Toquerville

Kevin Jenkins, STG
7:31 p.m. MDT May 24, 2014

Members of the public walk Toquerville streets during a Toquerville city tour put on by Healthy Dixie Committee and Walk Washington County on Saturday, May 24, 2014.
(Photo:
Trevor Christensen / The Spectrum & Daily News
)

TOQUERVILLE – A popular series of fitness events in which outdoor exercise combines with a tour of Washington County cities resumed Saturday with the Toquerville Mayor’s Walk conducted by Mayor Darrin LeFevre.

“We are very grateful that Healthy Dixie took the initiative and is going to be coordinating the walks in the future,” said Terri Draper, the communications manager for Intermountain Healthcare’s southwest region, including Dixie Regional Medical Center.

Intermountain and DRMC initiated the Mayor’s Walk series last year to celebrate DRMC’s centennial year. Throughout the year, mayors from Ivins City to Springdale to Enterprise led dozens of participants in warmup stretches followed by hikes of a mile to 2 miles through city streets.

“We had allocated resources for the 100th anniversary year, but not beyond,” Draper said. “I thoroughly enjoyed learning about Toquerville’s history (Saturday). We’re particularly glad we had good weather.”

Last year’s Toquerville walk had the distinction of being the only one canceled because of inclement weather, but when a few dozen people apparently didn’t get the word, the 2-mile trek proceeded through a light rain and cold November wind.

While Toquerville was next to last in the order of monthly walks, this year it was the first in the lineup, although it took until May to get things started.

“I talked to (the Healthy Dixie people) in November or December and said, ‘Let’s keep this going.’ I would have thought more of the other mayors would have jumped in ahead of us,” LeFevre said.

Saturday’s walk followed the same route as last year’s event, visiting a number of the city’s old homes dating back to the 1860s, including a cotton gin believed to be one of the oldest existing buildings in the county.

LeFevre told walkers that Toquerville was named after an 1800’s Native American chief named Toquer, and that Toquerville was once the seat of Kane County before being moved into Washington County.

At City Hall, he pointed out the old Jail Rock where prisoners were handcuffed during stopovers as they were transported between Cedar City and St. George.

One home featured a portable staircase between the living room and kitchen, he said, which was used to conceal a hiding place for the bishop of the community’s congregation of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when polygamy was still practiced and operatives from the U.S. Marshals Service were on the prowl looking for violators of federal mandates.

“The marshals actually caught up to him one day,” LeFevre said, adding that the man was convicted and served a brief period in the territorial prison.

“He was released and went on to serve as bishop for an additional 39 years,” LeFevre said.

“It’s really neat to see the little towns. … I didn’t know Toquerville also has a walking tour. I plan to look into that,” said St. George resident Heidi Lemke, who is organizing this year’s walks for Healthy Dixie.

Lemke said many of the mayors this year are doing walks in conjunction with city festivals that have already been planned.

Enterprise will again conduct its Mayor’s Walk as a kickoff to Corn Fest in August, which is the next walk planned in the series.

Hurricane also will hold its walk in conjunction with Peach Days in August, and Leeds will do its walk in conjunction with Wild West Days a week later, making this year’s schedule more uneven than last year.

“If we can keep it consistent, I think we would get a really good turn out,” Lemke said.

Rich Howard of Hurricane said he learned about the walk through an email Lemke sent out to last year’s participants.

“This is fun for us to do,” he said. “I grew up in LaVerkin when everything around was just little towns. But you just don’t get to know the history of your town.”

“That’s a pretty house there,” said Jacqueline Dubois, who still speaks with a strong French accent despite living in Hurricane for the past 45 years.

“I missed most of the other towns last year because I didn’t know — I don’t get the newspaper,” she said with a nudge. “Otherwise, I would have done all of them, because you learn a lot.”

The Toquerville royalty participating in the walk — Miss Toquerville, Mckinlye Gubler; First Attendant, Rebekah Harris; Second Attendant, Kennedy Kleinman; and Miss Congeniality, Arianna McKusick — were older than the 13-year-old who won the city pageant a few years ago, but still young enough to help set the pace for those preferring a more casual stroll.

“It’s a good workout,” Gubler said. “It’s nice to see all the people who like to get out and learn about our town.”

“More children need to come,” McKusick added.

LeFevre’s dialogue included comments about the weather, dogs barking from nearby yards and the different types of trees lining the downtown streets as well as information about the city’s new street signs, the spring that serves Toquerville, LaVerkin and Hurricane, and the new reservoir planned by the county’s Water Conservancy District.

“But I guess I need to be a little less talkative about city improvements,” he said, before launching into another story about a home’s history in the “old-new” part of town.

Draper said the public address speaker equipment used by Intermountain’s group last year has been loaned to Healthy Dixie to help make the mayors’ comments easier to hear. Leftover walking sticks and city medallions are also being distributed to the walkers.